(CNN) โ Thousands of acres of wilderness. Sinkholes. And the possibility of a gunman around every corner.
These are among the difficulties facing the dozens of law enforcement officers employed in the search for Joseph Couch, the man suspected of firing an AR-15 from a cliff ledge on the side of the interstate about nine miles north of London, Kentucky, striking 12 cars and wounding five people on Saturday.
โItโs kind of like a jungle,โ said Kentucky State Police spokesperson Scottie Pennington on Monday. The forest is home to cliffs, sinkholes, caves, culverts, and creeks and rivers โ all of which complicate the hunt for Couch.
Drones, helicopters, search dogs, and crews from federal, state and local agencies are all participating in the manhunt in a remote stretch of Kentuckyโs Daniel Boone National Forest. The nearly 72-hour search has focused on the densely wooded area near where responders found Couchโs semi-automatic rifle, ammunition, car and a phone thought to be his.
โOur main focus is to remain in those woods until we find him,โ Pennington said at a Tuesday news conference. โAnd some people say, well what if heโs not alive anymore? Well, weโre going to stay in the woods till we find him, and thatโs our job โ if heโs dead or alive, itโs our job to try to find him.โ
Officers have even been forced to use machetes to cut through the dense brush.
โHe couldnโt have picked an area that is any more remote and difficult for us to try to locate him,โ Laurel County Sheriffโs Deputy Gilbert Acciardo said Sunday.
โThat exit along I-75 is probably the most remote throughout Kentucky,โ he said. โItโs wooded. Itโs heavily wooded. Itโs got hills. Itโs got rocks.โ
The Daniel Boone National Forest includes 708,000 acres of federally owned land, including โsome of the most rugged terrain west of the Appalachian Mountains,โ according to the US Forest Service. The forest features โsteep forested slopes, sandstone cliffs and narrow ravines,โ according to the service.
The search for clues also took them to the home where Couch lived, Laurel County Sheriff John Root said Tuesday. He declined to say what kind of evidence was collected at the house.
There have been tips that have led authorities to investigate locations outside the forest but โnone of those have led anywhere,โ Pennington said, noting more tips โare still under investigation.โ
Fighting against the clock
Craig Caudill, a wilderness education expert and director of Nature Reliance School, a Kentucky-based program located less than 80 miles from the area where law enforcement is searching for Couch, said that in this part of the state, Couch could also encounter black bears and venomous snakes.
And as they work, search personnel are fighting against the clock: Although some officers camp out overnight, authorities have mostly shut down their search efforts after sunset, citing increased danger facing officers.
โWe really have to suspend it at dark because of the danger element of our guys being in there and maybe walking right up on this individual,โ said Acciardo. Officers will stay โin strategic positions to observeโ overnight.
โAt nighttime, our helicopters can fly. They are looking for heat sources,โ Pennington told reporters. More helicopters have joined the search, he said Tuesday.
Itโs not a matter of if Couch will be found, but when, Caudill told CNN Tuesday.
Caudill, who is contracted by federal and state governments to teach and train law enforcement, said four of the teams he has worked with are actively searching the area.
Law enforcement has said that they think Couch may still be armed and should be considered dangerous.
โAuthorities are not just facing logistical challenges searching in difficult terrain, but they are also searching for someone who has clearly shown a desire to cause indiscriminate loss of life after opening fire onto a freeway,โ Josh Campbell, CNN security correspondent and former FBI agent, said.
โThat makes him an extremely dangerous fugitive,โ Campbell said. โOfficers are having to work their way through a dense forested area slowly and methodically with their heads on a swivel, knowing a very real threat to their own safety could be lurking behind the next tree.โ
The search is โtedious and stressfulโ
Another challenge is the slow, methodical pace at which officers have to work to preserve any evidence they find, according to Pennington.
โYou go very slowly, because youโre not just looking for him, youโre looking for evidence,โ he said at a Monday news conference.
As far as what authorities are looking for, Caudill said itโs hard to say.
โI train law enforcement to do what they do, and I donโt want to say anything that would help the bad guys,โ he said.
โHe canโt float on the earth,โ Caudill said. โAnytime he takes a step, heโs going to leave a sign.โ
The work itself is exhausting, prompting authorities to swap out teams to rest. Search personnel have to carry heavy equipment, according to Acciardo, which makes the work even more โtedious and stressful.โ
Police have said that while theyโre operating under the assumption that Couch is still in the area, itโs possible he could have left โ or that he could no longer be alive. In a text message sent to a woman ahead of the shooting, he said he would โkill a lot of peopleโ and then โkill myself afterwards,โ according to a warrant for his arrest.
The warrant charges Couch with five counts of attempted murder and five counts of first-degree assault.
As the search continues, law enforcement officials have said theyโre hoping to โwear downโ Couch, who may be alone without access to food or water in the woods.
โHe (Couch) can survive a couple weeks,โ Caudill estimates. โNow whether heโs a functioning human within a few days is the issue. Just after three to four days without proper hydration, his bodyโs not going to function properly, heโs not going to have any good decision-making skills.โ
โThatโs what I call getting into a diminished decision-making position,โ he said. โTherefore, heโs going to not make the decisions he needs to take care of himself, which is a good thing for law enforcement in that regard.โ
And thatโs exactly what law enforcement hopes will happen as they โapply steady pressure and wear Mr. Couch down the longer he is in the woods,โ according to Pennington.
โHopefully heโll eventually just walk out the woods and give yourself up,โ he said.
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